Room by Emma Donoghue

The unusual setting and point-of-view in this book gave the group plenty of discussion material. A great deal of planning and research obviously went into Donoghue’s writing. The details such as the construction of the shed, the daily phys ed activities of Jack and his mother, and the necessity of sunscreen and sunglasses were among the things that we marvelled at. One member managed to read the novel without exposure to all the reviews and media hype. He was treated to the gradual revelation of Jack and Ma’s circumstances, which made it a somewhat different reading experience. After hearing so much about Room, I was personally surprised that only half of the book took place in captivity and the other half dealt with the main characters’ adjustment to the outside world. This, of course, made for a much better read than the alternative. When we considered the Great Escape, most of the group found the events difficult to believe. It seemed unlikely that several chance events would all go in favour of the protagonists: Old Nick obeyed Ma’s directions not to look at Jack or bury him in the back yard, the five-year-old boy managed to get out of the rolled up rug, and a man just happened to be out on a residential street after nine at night to witness Jack fleeing. It was probably a challenging sequence to dream up and edit. When considering how each of us might have parented Jack, the group felt that the childhood that Ma was able to give Jack, given her horrific circumstances and very limited resources, was quite good. Protecting Jack from Old Nick and not telling the boy about the outside world for the first few years of his life were understandable decisions. When we finally gave our opinions on the book, a few members said that had Room not been a book club book, they would not have read it or at least might not have completed it. Our ratings for the book worked out to an average of 3.75 out of 5 stars.

The next meeting on the evening of December 12 will be our winter holiday party. I will send out the details through e-mail.

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